Wet Feather?

[Chickenzie]

I have seen a lot of post on here and on facebook about wet feather and it has me wondering about my duck. I haven’t been able to grab her to feel her feathers yet, but for now I wanted to post a pic and see if she possibly has wet feather or if it’s from the cold. Her feather looks “wet” when I let her out in the mornings. This morning when I let her out she looked relatively normal and when I just checked on her, her feathers look like this. She isn’t acting lethargic or anything like that.

 

[HollowOfWisps]

A very very mild case of wet feather, but people tend to make a much bigger deal out of it than what it is. Wet feather isn’t a disease itself, but the deterioration of the feather integrity. It is like split ends or hair that is fried on people- damaged keratin structures. Ducks also will look a little scraggly and tend to have a some mild wet feather before a molt, when they get older, have issues preening, no access to water to swim or even over a harsh winter when they can’t bathe for long periods of time it will often happen. Only in severe cases does it really pose a problem because they can’t stay warm or swim. Again severe cases. In mild cases they can swim and stay warm just fine.